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Screw You! eBay and Paypal, the Beatrice and Eugenie of the internet

May 2, 2011 |

I’ve long defended eBay despite the many problems people tell me they have with them but the straw has broken the camels back (I am the camel).

I mean, their fees are absolutely extortionate (you pay listing fees, final sale fees – the higher the value of the item you sell, the more it will cost you – then Paypal will take a cut of the money too).

If you pay with Paypal and you use a currency converter beforehand like I do, you will notice how the item will always cost a few pounds more according to Paypal’s converter. Hmmmm. Bonus here. Bonus there.

Anyway – my problem with eBay is that Mr C was due to pay some seller fees. It was quite a lot so I made a part payment first (using my Paypal account to do a ONE OFF PAYMENT).

I am glad I did because the payment did not show up for a while and when we spoke to a Customer Service rep about it, they simply palmed us off with it-takes-days rubbish (if you have ever managed to get a response from eBay which was not ‘copy and paste’ bull, do let me know).

He refused to pay the rest of the fees until this amount cleared.The Royal Wedding and bank holiday weekend pass, and I check my account today and horror of horrors – eBay have helped themselves to the remainder of the fees from my Paypal account. Without ANY express permission from either of us.

A one off payment should be just that – a one off.

I got in touch with their customer services and got the usual guff *yawn* ….

“It seems that as you have made the payment from your friend’s PayPal account, your initial PayPal account is replaced by your friend’s PayPal account. Therefore, I suggest you to get in touch with the PayPal directly and update your account details and thereafter, update your PayPal account details on eBay account also.

While PayPal is affiliated with eBay, they have their own Customer Service Department. As an eBay Customer Support Representative I can’t view your PayPal account details. PayPal representatives are much better equipped to answer PayPal-specific questions. To contact PayPal Customer Service, click on “Contact Us” at the bottom of any PayPal page.

And with regard to the payment of eBay fees, you can also make one-time payment to clear the fees. Whilst the option to make a one-time payment allows sellers to pay eBay fees, you can upfront make a payment to clear the fees that were charged to your account. Even if you have an automatic payment method on file, you can still make a one-time payment.

You can use any of the following methods to make one-time payment for your eBay fees:

No. 1: I don’t remember reading ANYTHING at the point of making the payment which said I would allow them to take future payments from my Paypal.

No. 2: Nice palming off to Paypal there. They are part of the same group, of course, but ultimately eBay charged the money so why wouldn’t I direct the question to them?

No. 3: The majority of this response is just complete and utter irrelevant drivel which has nothing to do with the question – why the HELL are they helping themselves to money from an account which they were NOT given permission to take from?

I don’t actually have the strength to get the fees back – whatever, Mr C will have to pay me back in lifelong leg massages, but nevertheless I think the strange ‘we can do what we like’ attitude from eBay and Paypal is shocking.

Remember guys –

1: If you have funds in Paypal, for gods sake transfer it to your bank account. Especially if you have a significant amount. Do not let them take your funds or lock them up for some odd reason which their customer services can’t explain.

2: If you do ever make a one off payment for someone else on eBay or use an alternative Paypal account to do it, remember that eBay may link it up and take future fees from that account. Erase your data wherever possible.

Comments

i hate ebay and paypal. ironically paypal is really unsafe, not what they would have you believe! it is very easy for accounts to get hacked and money siphoned off into stranger’s (hacker’s) accounts. I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole!! xx

eBay and Paypal quite honestly take the p*ss way too often. I still use it because it’s simply the biggest marketplace there is and you can find such eclectic items. But because they are so big, they have formed this attitude of ‘we do what we want and if you don’t like it, jog on’ which sucks.

Someone accused me of selling fake MAC (I would NEVER do that! Bought the bloody eyeshadow from Selfridges!) and this resulted in my Paypal account being frozen and me not being able to buy anything from eBay until the matter was resolved (which of course it eventually was – I luckily had kept the receipt). NO matter what I had to say, no matter that I had been a customer for years and was always reliable, I got absolutely nowhere until the customer accepted my receipt as proof the eyeshadow was genuine. It was ridiculous.

Then, more recently, someone sold me a USED item of makeup, as opposed to it being new, as was listed. I contacted the seller, who was rude beyond belief and I decided I would leave negative feedback for the first time in 6 years of being an eBay buyer. Next thing I know, eBay has contacted me saying my feedback has been removed and that I violated some sort of policy. I swear that I only wrote the truth and nothing personal whatsoever. Then I was contacted by the seller – “HAHA serves you right, trying to leave me negative feedback, I got that sh*t removed you greedy b*tch!”. It was utterly ridiculous and it’s honestly put me off wanting to buy on eBay anymore.

In my experience, eBay (and paypals) email support is terrible, however I have gotten great support from both companies telephone support (although admittedly I was a buyer in both cases). I’d recommend giving them a call and trying to sort things out that way, I guess it’d also be easier to file a complaint with them that way if that’s what you decided to do.

lol, the drawing at the end. i hate the bull they copy and paste hate hate hate that cant believe they continued to take the money from your account! how are they going to do that all the time now. bringing the one time payment meaning to a whole new level here. arses!